"Everybody on that field has chosen a very unique path in their young lives," Army coach Rich Ellerson said last week.

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Doesn't matter.

There will be no spectacular aerial displays by strong-armed quarterbacks. One team is ranked 119th, next-to-last, in the nation in passing. The other is No. 120.

Don't care.

The polls don't mention them. The Bowl Championship Series computers have never heard of them. Mel Kiper Jr., does not have one name from either team on his NFL draft big board.

Neither here nor there.

Army plays Navy on Saturday. Guys, how college football needs you now.

This is the season of Southern California sanctions and Ohio State suspensions and Penn State shame. These are the topics of our time: pay for players, chaos in conference expansion, BCS outrage and child sexual abuse.

But here come Army and Navy. In a restless sport of frequent doubt and tumultuous questions, they have more answers than anyone. They know what they want to do, they know why they're there. And they know what's ahead.

"Everybody on that field has chosen a very unique path in their young lives," Army coach Rich Ellerson said last week at a news conference.

They will play Saturday with nothing on the line but pride and honor and a sense of achievement, and that will be quite enough. For these Cadets and Midshipmen, each and every day, that is enough.

The issues for their future? Neither BCS bright lights nor NFL big money. We should mention some of their futures.

•Army's top tackler, linebacker Steven Erzinger, has been assigned to armor.

•Leading receiver Davyd Brooks will handle field artillery.

•Backup quarterback Max Jenkins will join the infantry.

•Navy quarterback Kriss Proctor will be a naval flight officer.

•Nose guard Jared Marks is going to the Marines.

•Fullback Alexander Teich will be a Navy SEAL.

But first, they have one last football game to play.

"We know how much they sacrifice for our school and our program," Navy coach Ken Niumatalolo says, "and will sacrifice for our country, on both sides."

Ellerson adds, "We're great competitors. But, ultimately, turn the page and we're on the same team."

This is football, so you probably want stats. Some of them are not good.

Navy's missed four extra-point kicks and botched or missed a special-team snap in eight of 11 games.

But here's another stat from Navy: Senior guard John Dowd has a 3.91 GPA on a six-course load that includes reactor physics. When he's done blocking for the option, he'll be serving in submarines.

And another stat from Army: Senior linebacker Andrew Rodriguez has a 4.14 GPA in mechanical engineering. When he's done blitzing quarterbacks and stuffing runs, he'll be in the infantry.

"It's the moment where everybody is paying attention to what we do every week," Ellerson says of the Army-Navy game. "We don't suddenly become something this week that we haven't been all year."

This game won't count for the national championship. Then again, neither did LSU's win at Alabama.

But, oh, how it matters.

It matters because how many other college football Saturday afternoons go untouched by money or excess or misplaced perspective?

It matters because, in an ego-driven sports world, the television screen is seldom so filled with men who understand selflessness.

U.S. presidents have been to 18 Army-Navy games, including seven visits from Harry Truman. I'd be there every December if I were in the White House.

Come Saturday, we can understand Army's hunger. Navy has won nine of these games in a row by a combined score of 322-91, which must be maddening for one wing of the Pentagon.

Come Saturday, we can applaud Navy's discipline. It has been Nos. 1 or 2 in the nation in fewest penalties four years running.

Most of all, we can admire how, upon a turbulent college football landscape, one day has stayed so much the same. The Cadets and Midshipmen march, the teams compete, then they all go back to their very serious business of serving — and occasionally dying — for the rest of us, including those who grow wealthy from the same sport they once shared.

No one appreciates the chance to play a football game more than they.

That means something, especially this year.

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